When the Bad turn Good and the Good turn Bad
by lonewolf21213
Summary: What happens when Hermione realizes that her friend is being controlled by part of Voldemort's soul? What happens when the only one that can help him is her secret crush, the dreaded Potions master?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

Hermione walks into the Great Halls looking for Harry. She can't find him so she walks back out. She is heading towards the library when she overhears some Gryffindors talking. "I can't believe that slimy git was allowed to come back to being a teacher after the war. He hasn't changed a bit. You would think that he would be grateful to us since be defeated You-Know-Who but he's still a bastard towards us. Just the other day I was talking and he took 10 points off of Gryffindor!"

"Yeah he is a slimy git, he might be considered a 'war hero' but he did nothing in the final battle, if I remember correctly, which I do, Snape was on the ground bleeding the entire time, I don't see how that helped us at all. I highly doubt that he was on our side in the first place. He probably tricked Harry and Ron into believing that he was on their side, just like he tricked Dumbledore"

"How about Hermione then, she is supposedly the smartest girl in the year, how would she fall for his tricks?"

"I don't know, maybe she isn't as smart as people say she is, it doesn't matter anyways he is still a cowardly slimy git."

Hermione, not being able to contain herself anymore, storms towards them and yells "Enough! Professor Snape might be a snarky git sometimes but considering that almost no one trusts him I really don't blame him, but he has spent his entire school life trying to protect his students, even the ones he couldn't stand! My first year here Professor Snape tried his hardest to prevent Voldemort from getting the Sorcerer's Stone and even got bitten by a three headed dog in the process. He also saved Harry when his broom was being jinxed by Quirrell, who had Voldemort on the back of his head! The second year, he made the potions that un-paralyzed the basilisk's victims as fast as he could to the best of his ability! Third year he made a potion for Professor Lupin so when he turned into a werewolf he would be perfectly harmless, and when we were in danger he went in front of us to protect us and got hurt in the progress! Fifth year he had to pretend to be working for Bloody Voldemort while really be working for Headmaster Dumbledore and he refused to give Umbridge the Veritaserum so she could use it on Harry! Sixth year On top of being a quadruple agent he had a Unbreakable Vow with Draco Malfoy's mother that he would protect Draco and had to kill Dumbledore, on his orders I must add, to gain Voldemorts trust so that he could stop Voldemort! And last year he protected the students the best he could while still trying to help the Order right under Voldemort's nose! He did all he could without arousing suspicion from Voldemort and almost gave his bloody life to protect everyone! Professor Snape is the bravest man I have ever met, braver than all Gryffindors put together; he is not in any way a coward. He has done more for us than anybody else, and that includes Harry! If it wasn't for him we would have never defeated Voldemort and all of us would be dead! I am so sick and tired of people talking bad about Professor Snape when he deserves praise and respect! He is the bravest and loyal man I've ever known and ever will know and you will not insult him again or you'll regret it!"

"Now I know why you believed him, you fell in love with the slimy git! Hey, I just insulted the slimy git again, what are you going to do about it? If you attack us I'll say that you attacked us for no good reason, and it's true, attacking someone for insulting Snape is a bad reason."

"Quite frankly I don't mind getting detention for hexing people who insult him, and I've been dying to try out this spell so." Quickly Hermione took out her wand and did a spell. The two boys hair turned bubble-gum pink, their skin turned orange, and their close turned into dresses. Horrified the two boys stormed off. Laughing to herself for how the spell turned out, knowing that it would last 3 months unless she took it off before then. She turned around the corner and walked into someone.

"Sorry" she says and takes a step back and looked up into cold black eyes. It was Professor Snape. Hermione's heart started pounding and she was blushing. I wonder how much of that he heard. He will not be happy to be compared to Gryffindors and even worse, to Harry. She thought to herself. She saw that Professor Snape looking at her without disgust, but no hint of warmth either. His eyes were emotionless.

"10 points from Gryffindor for yelling in the halls and violence. You have detention tonight." He says in a calm voice, without a hint of the usual distain in his voice.

Angry she said glaring "I'll make sure it doesn't happen again Professor Snape." If it was another teacher I wouldn't of gotten a detention or lose points, Hermione though to herself. He really is a snarky git sometimes. I was just defending him.

"Report to detention at 7:00 tonight Miss Granger. Do not be late."

Glaring at his retreating figure she stormed off into the commons.

Hermione was heading back to the Gryfindor Commons when she hears Ron angrily calling her from behind her. "What is it Ron?" she asked annoyed. They, or more of she, decided that they would be better off as friends and Ron reluctantly agreed, thinking that all she needed was time to realize she was in love with him.

"I can't believe you are in love with that bastard! Is the reason you won't go out with me is because my hair isn't greasy enough! That I am not awful to everyone I meet? Or is it because I can't get you a good grade in exchange for favors? I noticed that you are getting Outstandings in Potions now!" He yelled, saying one more thing with a small smirk "Or are you just trying to get me jealous? Well it's too little too late now, I don't want used goods."

Hermione turned around and slapped him, hard. The outline of her hand was bright red on his cheek. "How dare you Ron." She said in a cold and even voice. Ron's face started to go white with fear. He had never heard that tone from her before. "I would never stoop as low as sleep with a teacher for a good grade, nor would I need to. I study hard and earn my grades. The reason I'm getting better grades in Potions is because Professor Snape doesn't have to favor Slytherins so he could have the favor of Lord Voldemort. I do not and will not ever feel anything romantic towards you, and now, I really don't care to be friends with you either."

Hermione noticed that Harry was next to Ron. In her anger she didn't notice him earlier. To Ron Harry said "I have to agree with Hermione with this one. That was uncalled for." When Ron opened his mouth Harry said "I wouldn't recommend talking to me right now. Maybe when you get your head out of your arse I'll consider talking to you."

Furious Ron stormed out of the room. With a muttered lets go somewhere more private from Harry Hermione and Harry left. They found a secluded room and Harry said "Hermione, I know Snape" seeing Hermione glare he quickly said "Professor Snape has changed since the war ended but did you have to let Ron find out that you are in love with him? He truly believes that he is in love with you and in his opinion you fell in love with the enemy. He still sees him the same way he did when he killed Dumbledore. The memories Professor Snape showed me made me realize why he is the way he is. Why did you let two of the biggest gossips in the school find out your feelings for him?"

"I never said I was in love with Professor Snape Harry, what makes you even think that?" Hermione snapped at Harry. She was still angry because of Ron.

"You never said you didn't either. You don't lie if you can help it and if you didn't feel something towards Professor Snape you would of said so in the beginning."

Blushing like mad Hermione said "you seem to be taking this well."

"You accepted me liking Pansy just fine, it would seem hypocritical if I didn't do the same thing. I haven't been able to tell Ron yet because I knew how he would react."

Wanting desperately to take the subject off of her she asks "how are you and Pansy doing? Has anything happen yet?"

"She has finally agreed to go to The Three Broomsticks with me. She keeps thinking I'm doing this to make fun of her."

"Well she still thinks that you think that you are the 'Great Harry Potter' and believes that the only reason you asked her out is to prove that you can, not because you are interested her."

"How could I not be interested in her? She went against her parents during the final battle, and after the final battle she was the only one, other than you and Ron, that treated me like a human, not the "Great Harry Potter' as you put it. She didn't treat me awfully either, she just told me that she is glad it's finally over and smiled. The only thing to describe her at that moment was beautiful."

"I hope that Pansy realizes that you really like her, if she does she would gladly date you. I can hear the sincerity in your voice when you talk about her, and if she did she would feel beautiful."

"Well she is beautiful."

Noticing that it was 6:45 she told Harry that she had detention and left to the dungeons.

A/N: I've been reading a lot of SS/HG lately and wanted to try my hand at it. Should I continue with this or does it completely suck?


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

A/N #1: I know I have a lot of grammar problems in this, I normally write in first person so third person is difficult for me.

Hermione timidly walked into detention without knowing what to expect, since she hasn't had a detention since first year when she Ron and Harry got caught by Malfoy during first year. Plus she wasn't sure how Professor Snape was going to act. She looked around and saw that the professor was sitting at his desk grading papers. When he didn't seem to notice her she said "Sir, I'm here for my detention." _That I didn't deserve_ she added mentally.

Looking up he said "I know Miss Granger; why else would you be here? You may start scrubbing the cauldrons. The cleaning supplies are on your desk."

He goes back to grading as Hermione grabs a brush and cleaning solution. After a few minutes of scrubbing Hermione glances at Snape. He was still grading and doesn't seem to notice her. For the next hour Hermione steals looks at Snape and not once does he look at her. _He's acting like I'm not even here! He hasn't even glared at me once, it's like I'm invisible!_ She thought angrily to herself, and in her anger accidently knocking over the cauldron she was about to start working on onto the floor. Snape glances up but doesn't say anything before returning to his grading. Hermione, getting angrier, didn't realize while she bent down to pick up the cauldron that she was right under the shelf of her class's Dreamless Sleep potions. When she got up she hit her head on the shelf, knocking it off. Just as the closest potion to her was about to crack on her head it stopped, floating in the air. The shelf reattached itself and all the potions went back on the shelf, not a single one broken.

"Miss Granger, watch what you are doing. I thought you were capable of scrubbing cauldrons without someone keeping an eye on you. Your detention is over. Come back tomorrow at the same time for damaging the schools property." Professor Snape said in an annoyed voice. Hermione doesn't say anything and storms out, glancing at Snapes desk. She notices that he was still grading the same paper as when her detention started.

The next day in the great hall Hermione sat quietly looking at her breakfast. _He must of noticed me if he was still grading the same paper, but why did every time I looked at him it looked like he was grading? Did he feel my eyes on him or what. _Hermione said to herself, deep in thought.

Harry casted _Muffliato_ loudly enough that Hermione hears him, making her jump. "How was detention?"

"Umm, a little weird. It was like he didn't realize that I was there. It looked like he was grading papers the entire time." Hermione said after a few seconds.

"Looked like? Was he grading papers the entire time?" Harry said after thinking over what she said for a minute.

"I'm not sure. He was still grading the same paper at the end of my detention."

Harry gave Hermione a small smile. "It looks like that he was trying to ignore you but failed. When I have detention with him he glares at me the entire time." Harry looks over Hermione's shoulder and says "sorry Hermione, I have to go."

Hermione turns around and sees Pansy walking to her table. The entire room seems to go quiet as people see Harry walk over to Pansy. Pansy's posture was a confident one and her eyes were daring anyone to comment.

Without even trying to hide his feelings Harry asks Pansy if she would take a walk with him. The whole room tensed as they waited for Pansy's answer. For a second it looked like Pansy was going to say something cruel, but she looked into Harry's eyes and thought differently. "Sure Harry, I would like that." She said smiling cautiously. Harry smiles even bigger and takes her hand and leads her out of the room, leaving a group of furious Gryffindors.

It sounded like a bomb exploded. First it was deathly quiet and the next everyone was yelling. Hermione looked over at Ron and saw that he had exploded. He was saying that the two people he thought were his friends were traitors and that he couldn't believe that Harry would stoop as low as date a Slytherin. Then he was saying that Pansy must have used a spell on him or a potion because that makes_ so _much more sense. The Slytherins on the other hand were taking it pretty well. There were very few of them and the ones that were left from before the final battle were shells of their former selves. All of them lost someone and saw the destruction their beliefs caused and realized that things had to change if they wanted to regain peoples trust. When Hermione saw that some Gryffindors were starting to hex the Slytherins and The Headmistress still hasn't done anything she had enough.

She used Expelliarmus on the people hexing the Slytherins, and a particular strong stunning spell on Ron, who was hexing Draco, who was currently facing away from him towards the other Slytherins. He falls down cold. Casting a Silencio on everyone and a Sonorus spell on herself she yells "ENOUGH!" Everyone looks at her, including the teachers. Canceling the Sonorus she continues. "Has the war taught us nothing? Misguided beliefs on who's better than the other was the entire basis of the war. I for one am ashamed to be in Gryfindor right now, for them reacting this way to two people being in a relationship. Because of how we treated the Slytherins it was hard for Harry to convince Pansy that he was serious about liking her. Yes a lot of people from Slytherin were on Voldemorts side, but it was a self imposed prophesy. Everyone treated them like that was what they were supposed to do, not once did someone reach out to them and made them see reason. And then people had the audacity to act surprised that they became what we treated them. From what I can see the Slytherins that you are calling evil aren't the ones attacking others when their backs are turned."

Not bothering to cancel the silencing spell Hermione storms out of the room to see if she can catch up to Harry and Pansy.

After looking around for a few minutes she finds them near the forbidden forest. They are sitting down across from each other talking, both looking love struck. Seeing that they were having a moment Hermione was about to leave when Pansy sees her. She points her out to Harry and gestures her over. Surprised Hermione walks up to them and sat down.

"Hi Harry, Pansy," she said. "You two left a room full of chaos."

"I know. How hurt is everyone?"

"Most people are fine, but I think I sent Ron to the infirmary. He hexed Draco when his back was turned. I don't know what's gotten into him lately. He was never like this before the war."

"I'm not sure." Harry said, then after a few seconds sat up and told Hermione and Pansy he needed to see something.

"Am I now considered a disgrace to Slytherins?" Pansy asked in a neutral voice after a few minutes of silence. She was trying to act like she didn't care but her eyes gave her away.

"No, your house acted pretty well. I'm ashamed of my own house though, they started hexing the Slytherins because the 'Beloved Gryfindor Golden Boy' went to the 'dark side'." Hermione answered, the last thing dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm glad I can say I'm not surprised about my own house. At the beginning of the year Professor Snape gave a speech that made everyone feel like we had the ability to do good, even if everyone tells us we can only do evil. It's hard to be in Slytherin nowadays when everyone expects us to be just like before, arrogant and bigoted."

"I'm Sorry that I couldn't have said the same thing about your house, especially when they didn't fight back when they got hexed for no good reason."

"That's pretty cunning on Slytherins part; it makes the other Gryffindors look a lot worse."

"I'll say, I am absolutely ashamed to be in Gryffindor right now. Headmistress McGonagall did absolutely nothing the entire time. I have a feeling both me and Harry are going to be treated one of two ways by our house, totally ignored by everyone or be openly hated."

Totally shocked she just stared at Hermione for a few minutes and asked, "Why? Harry seems to be loved by all the Gryffindors and they won't hate you for supporting mine and Harry's relationship. They will get over this."

"People love finding flaws in their heroes and then bashing them. Remember what happened during Harry's Second and Fifth year? He was treated pretty awfully by allot of people, including the people in Gryffindor. And as for me I told my house I was ashamed to be a Gryffindor if this is how they act."

"Well Granger, I didn't think you had it in you. I guess falling in love with the head of Slytherin made you see sense."

"How did you know? I know Harry wouldn't have said anything."

"I didn't, but I've heard the rumors like everyone else, and you just confirmed it." Pansy said with a slight smirk. "You might just be good enough for him Granger." Hermione was annoyed until she realized that Pansy was just teasing her.

"I think it would be fine if you would call me Hermione, from what it looked like earlier you are with my best friend. How did that happen by the way? Harry told me that you didn't believe him when he told you he was interested."

"He asked me out in front of everyone and wasn't the slightest bit ashamed. Plus he looked at me like I was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. No one else has ever looked at me like that before." Pansy said with a faraway look in her eyes. She blushed when she realized who she was talking too. "Well Granger since you aren't all bad I guess I can call you Hermione."

Realizing that she was joking with her, not many people has done that since the war ended, too many people lost, she laughed and said, "Thanks, I think."

"Well going back to Professor Snape I think you should know that"

Before Pansy could say finish Harry came up panting like he was running hard. "Hermione, I think I know what is wrong with Ron!"

A/N #2: Double Cliffhanger! Yes I know that's evil. To the detention with Snape. I believe that even if he somehow did get interested in a student he wouldn't do anything about it until after they were no longer a student and would try to ignore them until then. Next chapter I will give a flashback as to how Snape got interested in Hermione.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

"What do you mean you know what's wrong with Ron?" Hermione asked astounded. Harry was about to open his mouth when he saw Pansy there, shocked. For a second he had a lovesick look in his eyes then it cleared.

"Pansy I'm sorry, I promise we'll continue our date later but I need to talk to Hermione. I really like you but this is important and it's not like I"

"Harry stop, I understand. Ron is family to you and Hermione. I'm not going to think you are ditching me when you're just trying to help someone you care about." Pansy said, interrupting Harry. He smiles and kisses Pansy. Once he finished kissing her Pansy told him that she was going to check on Draco.

"Now tell me what you meant Harry." Hermione demanded after she left.

"Earlier when you said Ron never acted like this before the war it got me thinking. I realized the last time he acted like bad was when he was still under the Horcrux's influence."

"But didn't he destroy the Horcrux?"

"Yeah he did, so I went straight to the library and looked at some books, I do do that sometimes!" Harry added, seeing Hermione's shocked face. "I looked at some books in the library and found out that a person can still be affected by dark objects long after the person comes out of contact with it."

"What about me and you then? We aren't acting like gits, well I don't think so anyways."

"I had a Horcrux in my head remember? I believe that since I've spent my entire life, without realizing it, fighting its influence. I mean I wasn't a git when I was a kid, not that I remember anyways. I must have broken free of the Lockets influence the same way."

"I can see what you mean; you were a decent person when you were a kid Harry even though you had part of Voldemort's soul in you. That doesn't explain how I am not still under the influence."

"Well, during the time you were wearing the Horcrux you were doing a lot more magic than Ron and I put together. Maybe you got rid of the dark magic as quickly as you came in contact with it, but I don't know for sure. Anyways Ron was most influenced by it in the first place."

"That's a good theory, but if it's true, how do we go about fixing it? I knew that Ron wouldn't take it well that I love someone else but the Ron I know would never attack someone if there back was turned."

"I'm not sure."

After a few seconds Harry groaned.

"What?"

"I just realized we are probably going to have to ask Professor Snape about it. He has the most knowledge about dark magic and knows how to defend himself against it. I just don't know how much he is willing to help, I mean it's after the war and he is not required to help."

"It wouldn't hurt to ask. He is more approachable now than he was before the war." Hermione said, looking off into the distance, deep in thought.

"Maybe for you, but he doesn't seem approachable to me. I think that he still sees my dad whenever he sees me."

"I'll just ask him by myself then. I'll wait until my detention tonight though. I want to see Ron for myself before I ask him anything."

"He gave you detention on a Saturday?"

"During detention yesterday I accidently broke his cabinet. He fixed it right away but the damage was done."

"Why did you break his cabinet?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" she yelled, and then blushing added, "I was frustrated and accidently knocked over a cauldron. When I picked it up I banged my head on the shelf and it knocked all of the potions on it off. If Professor Snape didn't prevent the potion from breaking on my head I could have been poisoned, it was a Dreamless Sleep potion and if it was made incorrectly it could have put me in a coma."

"What were you frustrated about?"

Still blushing

Hermione said "It's not important. Do you want me to ask or not?"

"Better you than me. He might answer you."

Looking at the time Harry realized that he was late for quidditch practice. "Oh sorry Hermione, I got to go. If you see Pansy, tell her to meet me at the same spot as last time at three o'clock."

Rolling her eyes Hermione agreed and went to the infirmary to check on Ron. Just as she was about to walk in she overheard Pansy and Draco.

"What do you mean you were going to tell Granger that you listened to her talking to Professor Snape after the final battle? You never tell someone you were spying on them, unless you have a good reason." Draco said.

"I did, I believe that Professor Snape is interested in her." Pansy replied.

"What? There is no way he would be interested in a student, let alone a student from Gryffindor, who I might add is best friends with the person that looks like the person he hates the most."

"You weren't there."

"Fine. Tell me what happened."

***Flash back***

Pansy was in the dungeons breathing hard, the last deatheater on the scene was captured and she barely survived turning against her parents onto the side of good. She was hit with a lot of hexes but she was still standing. She slumped against the wall and heard voices from inside the potions room.

"Professor Snape! You're here!" Hermione's voice exclaimed from inside the room. Pansy stood up and peered inside, wondering what was going on. She thought the professor was dead. Hermione's face was pale white with small beads of sweat on her forehead.

"What, surprised to see me after leaving me for dead in the shrieking shack?"

"No, I knew that wasn't really you laying there." Snape's eyebrows rose in shock.

"Oh, really. And how did you know that?"

"I did an analyzing spell and saw that the body wasn't ever alive in the first place. I'm guessing you used a Golem to trick Voldemort." Hermione said, sitting on a desk.

"Where did you learn that spell?" He said, sounding grudgingly impressed.

"I brought some spell books with me while we were searching for the objects to destroy Voldemort. That spell seemed pretty useful so I memorized it."

"So you used a spell, when you never used it before, on my Golem, and did it correctly on the first turn."

"Yes, what's your point?"

"Not many people could do that Miss Granger." He said, sounding grudgingly impressed.

Hermione, shocked to receive a compliment from this man just stood there for a second.

"Now if your done doing an impression of a fish I would like to know that if you knew that I was most likely alive, why were you surprised when you saw me?"

"I was surprised about was the fact that you didn't let people continue thinking you were dead. I thought you would have jumped at the opportunity to be a free man, and unfortunately the easiest option would be having everyone thinking you're dead."

"That's what I was planning on doing. I was just getting some things from my office when I saw that you were in my room. I guess that staying dead is no longer an option I will have to"

"I won't say anything to anyone that I saw you Professor; I'll even take an oath of silence if you want. I wasn't going to tell anyone before this and I won't after. I wasn't even going to tell Harry."

"Why?" he asked, completely shocked.

"Like I said before the best way for you to be free was to have everyone believe that you were dead. You have done more in this war than anyone else and you deserve a reward more than anyone else I know. I won't stand in your way of getting a reward you deserve. I knew that Harry would of looked for you if I told him and I knew that he would be the second to last person you would want finding you, the first being Voldemort back to life." Seeing that the professor was still shocked she continued, much to her embarrassment. "I was so glad to find out that I was right about you, that my instincts were dead on. I didn't think I would fall for someone who was truly on the evil side and I can't believe I just said that. Man I'm light headed. I hope an oath won't make me weaker than I feel right now." Hermione babbled, not even blushing.

After standing there for a minute Professor Snape said "an oath won't be necessary. I trust you to keep this a secret." He didn't say anything about her confession. He believed that if he did he would say something cruel and he knew that Hermione didn't deserve that. From what she just said, she still believed in him even after he killed the beloved Headmaster. He didn't know what he did to earn her trust but he was grateful. He thought at the least he could do the same thing.

"Bye Professor, have a nice life." Hermione said weakly. Pansy realized that her voice was weakening since she started listening.

Suddenly Pansy saw concern flash across Professor Snape's face, he just put two and two together and wished he didn't get four. "Why were you in my classroom Miss Granger?"

"I was stabbed earlier and thought that the tip might have been poisoned. I was looking for a Bezoar." Hermione said, fainting promptly, falling off of the desk onto the floor.

"You stupid girl, why didn't you just go to Poppy?" Professor Snape said with concern, surprising Pansy. He took out his wand and cast a spell. Hermione glowed for a second and the all of the wounds Pansy could see disappeared. Then he took a stone out of his cloak and forced it down Hermione's throat. She looked better than before, but that didn't mean much of anything. Pansy then saw Snape pick up Hermione, and she swore that she saw a flash of warmth in his eyes as he looked at her. He then walked into his office. She thought she heard him say Poppy's room and saw a flash. Pansy guessed he took the floo.

***End Flashback***

"After I saw the conversation I noticed that things didn't make any sense. One, why did he not instantly Obliviate Hermione when he saw her, and why was he so concerned about her if he supposedly hates her. Or why he didn't leave Hermione after he healed her, he knew that she wasn't going to say anything. And I don't know if you noticed but he looks at her during Potions when he thinks no one is looking. He also treats her decently in class, and out of it." Pansy told Draco after finishing telling him what she witnessed.

"And you came to the conclusion that he must like Granger. What has she done to accomplish that?"

"She believed in him when no one else did for one. I don't think anyone, not even Dumbledore, believed in him so completely. She didn't have an oath from him like he did. She also stood up for him completely. I wished I could of saw the Ministry's faces when she told them that if they sent Professor Snape to Azkaban they would have to send her there too, because Professor Snape did more for the war than she ever did. I don't know what else she said but the next thing anyone knew Professor's Snape was cleared of all charges and awarded an Order of Merlin first class for his help in the war. Think about it. Who else suits your Godfather? Hermione is intelligent enough that she can hold a decent conversation with him, more than anyone else can do, and she has a spine. When Professor Snape gets angry with Hermione and tries to use his tongue against her, Hermione would fight right back. He would never be bored with Hermione either."

"You seem to not think it's weird at all that he likes Granger, why? And why do you call Granger by her first name?"

"Because she asked me too. I found out that she is a pretty decent person, for a Gryffindor. I thought about this a lot because Professor Snape deserves some happiness in his life and I can see why he could like Hermione." Pansy said.

"Granger, I know you're listening. I think we need to talk." Draco said.

Hermione, who was in shock the entire time listening to their conversation, now gasped a little. She walked into the infirmary, blushing a little, and noticing that Ron was still out cold.

"Granger, frankly I think it's weird that you like my godfather, but Pansy is right. You are probably the best person for him." Draco told Hermione, smirking.

Pansy, who is smirking also, says "now that you know that Snape like you, what are you going to do about it? I have some suggestions if you don't know."

"So do I." said Draco.

Seeing the two of them share a look Hermione gulped. It seemed that everything became a lot more complicated. And she still had to see him in detention tonight.

A/N: sorry for the semi-cliffhanger, I have to do my chores. I'll try updating in the next few days.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

A/N: I would like to thank megumisakura, muppetpowelly7, cosmoGirl666, trollen, notwritten, Icelynne, mkdricks, saturngurl123, and indigo flower 94 for the reviews.

Hermione stood there, frozen. She couldn't believe that Pansy seemed to believe that Professor Snape was interested in her, or that Draco had no problem with it. "Umm, I don't know what you mean. I'm not planning on doing anything, he is still my teacher."

"Granger, you know exactly what we mean. Student/Teacher relationships aren't illegal as long as it consensual and the student is of age." Draco told her.

"Yeah, and now you know that he returns your feelings it makes it a lot easier for you to tell him that you wouldn't mind a relationship with him. Professor Snape probably thinks you were a little loopy from the poison when you confessed the first time." Pansy said.

"No, that doesn't make it easier. For one, I don't know for sure what you're saying is even true, second of all if it was so easy Draco would of asked Ginny out by now. She obviously likes him by the way she blushes whenever Draco teases her, which is all the time."

"Fine, I'll ask Ginny out, if you confess soon after I do." Draco said, sounding confident.

Hermione was about to open her mouth, to either accept or decline she wasn't sure, but then she heard Ron moan. She walked over to him and when he was her, he glared at her. He sits up and starts screaming. "YOU BITCH! You cursed me! How dare you! Everything was perfectly fine until you wet and ruined everything. You filthy little Mudblood, I'm going to make your life so"

He was cut off midsentence by three ends of a wand. Everybody saw Ron's eyes flash red. Madam Pomfry ran in, hearing the yelling, just as she saw Hermione, Draco, and Pansy cursed Ron.

"What are you doing!" she shrieked. "He's under my care. You could at least wait, hey get back here!"

Hermione was running out the door. Harry was right and she needed to talk to Professor Snape. She ran into the dungeons and pounded on Professor's Snape's door.

It quickly opened to a very annoyed Professor Snape. "There is no need to break my door down Miss Granger, what is it?"

Cutting to the chase Hermione said, panting. "Ron's eyes were red just like Voldemorts. He's been acting weird ever since Voldemort died so Harry thought he was still being controlled by one of the Horcruxs he destroyed. In the infirmary Ron just called me a filthy Mudblood and threatened me. "

Whatever he expected her to say, that most certainly was not it. "Why are you telling me and not some other person?"

"Because Sir, you know the most about the Dark Arts, and if I told anyone else they would freak out and think that Voldemort has come back to life or something."

"Well as it is, I have nothing to do right now so I'll look at Weasley. If I found out what you're saying is true, and you better hope for his sake that it's not, I might help figure out how to fix it." Professor Snape told her in a neutral voice.

Knowing that's the best she could get out of him she nodded and followed Professor Snape into the infirmary, her worry for her friend outdoing her nervousness towards Professor Snape. What they walked into was a sight; Ron tied down in the cot with a gag in his mouth and red eyes glaring at everybody. Madam Pomfry was knocked out on the floor.

"What on earth happened?" Hermione yelled.

"Even though I told Madam Pomfry it was a bad idea she enervated him to hear his side of the story, so Weasley stunned her with some spell and enervate won't work on her. So me and Draco casted Ligo Sursum on him and gagged him." Pansy explained, looking a little worn out. "But not before he tried to hex us also."

Professor Snape then took out his wand and did a spell on Madam Pomfry wordlessly. She then got up, looking confused.

"Miss Granger, I'm afraid that what you told me is true. I recommend not telling anybody. We don't need a group of people trying to kill Mr. Weasley." Professor Snape said, looking tired. "Now if you excuse me I have to see to something. Oh, Miss Granger, your detention tonight will be moved to next week."

Professor Snape then left the room without looking back.

_A few hours later in an abandoned classroom with Hermione, Harry, Pansy, and Draco _

Harry is pacing back and forth, trying to think of a way to inform Ron's family without informing the rest of the Wizarding world. Hermione is trying to figure out how to fix Ron and Pansy and Draco are talking on one side of the room.

"This is awful! I hope that Ron gets back to himself soon or everybody is going to try to kill him." Harry said, starting to freak out. "I never thought he would get this bad! I thought that"

"Harry, calm down, freaking out isn't going to help any of us." Hermione told Harry gently. She was worried too but she knew that if she freaking out wouldn't do anything. "We should be spending this time thinking of a way to get Ron out of the school unnoticed and without anyone finding out he is being controlled."

"I got it." Draco said after Hermione was done talking. "Weasley did hex me in the back. I could 'complain' to my father and he will do his best to kick him out. Ever since he turned his back on the Dark Lord in the final battle and killed a lot of deatheaters he has more influence than ever."

"But wait," Pansy said, "Isn't your father no longer listening to every request you ask of him?"

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure we can trust him with the truth. He knows that if people believe that The Dark Lord possessed Ron he would be looked as someone who knew all along."

"Malfoy, do it. If Ron stays here people are going to try to kill him." Hermione says. "Especially the Gryffindors, ever since we won the war they've been acting like cocky bastards. Which is stupid since most of them didn't do anything."

"You seem to not like Gryffindors anymore, which is quite funny since you are one." Draco tells her, "Fancy becoming a Slytherin Granger? Then you won't have to deal with stupid Gryffindors."

"Malfoy, even though I know your joking, I would rather be in Hufflepuff right now than Gryffindor. They are being absolutely disgraceful. Even Slytherin looks better." Hermione replied.

"I really hate to say it but I agree. Ever since the end of the war everybody in my house has been acting like the Slytherins used too, cocky and arrogant. Well every Gryffindor except Neville and Ginny. I would rather be in Slytherin right now than Gryffindor." Harry reluctantly said.

Both Pansy and Draco looked shocked. Then Pansy said "I knew there was a reason I liked you Harry, why don't you sit with me at lunch, I would love to see the headmistress's face when she sees you sitting with Slytherins."

Harry smiles at her a little and says "I just might do that, I need to see something Pansy, do you want to join me?"

Rolling her eyes Pansy takes Harry's hand and leads him out. She knew that as long as Harry wasn't thinking about Ron the less likely it was that Harry was going to do something stupid, like trying to talk to Ron and give him a chance to try to kill him or something.

"Granger, you can join us. It would make seducing Severus easier if he thinks that you don't like being a Gryffindor anymore." Draco said when they left the room, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I am not going to seduce Professor Snape! And if you are so convinced I am going to get together with your godfather you could at least call me by my first name Malfoy!" Hermione says, knowing that Draco was mainly joking.

"Fine _Hermione_, then you could call me Draco."

"Well _Draco_, I realize that you're trying to get us to stop worrying about Ron but it's not working. There is a chance that he will never get back to normal. How long will it take for you to arrange Ron leaving?" Hermione asked Draco.

"I'm not sure, it depends on if my father believes me about him or not. At most a few weeks if he does." Draco tells her, "I better go send a letter to father that I need to talk to him."

After Draco leaves Hermione alone in the room Hermione walks around, worrying herself about Ron. She never thought that Ron could one day be nice and normal, and the next be an evil bastard. If Ron never got better the only option was to lock him up forever, that or kill him. To Hermione, neither option sounded good. _No, Severus won't let that happen. He seemed to be too concerned about it to not fix it_. Hermione thought, realizing that she thought Professor Snape as Severus. Groaning she accepted that yes, she is in love with him, and no, her feelings are not going away any time soon.

A few hours later Hermione gets told by Draco that he is going to talk to his father tonight and it looks like if things went well Ron could be out of Hogwarts by next week.

"I wish that Ron was out tonight, I barely convinced Madam Pomfry that it was a bad idea to tell the ministry about him. Ron could be sent to Azkaban if the Minister knows about him. All of this is so stressful. Even if Ron does get sent to a safe place, who would be willing to look over him to make sure he doesn't escape? Every person that I could trust to look after him competently not to tell anyone about him is either dead or too busy." Hermione told him.

Harry then barged into the room. "Hermione, there you are, Professor Snape needs to see you, I think it's about Ron!"

A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger, I don't know how else to end the chapter. I've changed the title, this was originally supposed to be a two-shot but stuff kept on happening and a new plot emerged. Reviews are welcomed!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

A/N: Thanks Icelynne notwritten & HermioneFan28 for the reviews.

"Where is he?" Hermoine asked Harry.

"With the Headmistress, you better hurry; he is not a patient person."

"Thanks Harry, Draco, tell me when you have the date for Ron's departure." Hermione says, leaving quickly.

Hermione quickly arrives at the Headmistress's office. Once she got close enough the door opened and Hermione headed upstairs.

Headmistress McGonagall was there waiting for her. "Miss Granger, it has come to my attention that you believe that Mr. Weasly has been taken over by Voldemort."

"I don't believe that Ron has been taken over by Voldemort, I believe that he's being influenced by a piece of his soul. Sorry for being rude but Harry told me that Professor Snape wanted to see me, where is he?" Hermione said, noticing that Severus wasn't there.

"He will be here shortly, tell me what you mean by Voldemort's soul controlling Ron." McGonagall said to Hermione.

"The items we were searching for during the war were pieces of Voldemort's soul. When we found one of them it influenced us and made our darker side stronger. It is what made Ron abandon us while we were still searching for other pieces of his soul. But he was never this bad before." Hermione told her, saying the last part mainly to herself.

"Miss Granger, if what you told me is true we are in a lot of trouble. We do not need another Dark Lord. Now, what do you recommend we do with your friend, since I assume that you don't want him in Azkaban?"

"Draco is going to ask his father to kick him out of the school; with the fake reason being that Ron hexed him in the back. He believes that since his father has so much influence at the ministry he could at least get Ron suspended and out of the school for a good amount of time." Hermione told the Headmistress, just as Severus walked into the room.

"Severus, can you please now tell me what you've found out about Mr. Weasly? Miss Granger has told me her theory, but you seem to have more insight to the fact." McGonagall told Severus once she saw him.

"Miss Granger is correct, for the most part, but it is worse than she thinks. Mr. Weasly might not be possessed by Voldemort, at least not completely, but he is being influenced by Voldemort. The spell he used on Poppy was a dark one that he should not have known. I believe that if something isn't done about it he might never break free of his control." Severus said.

"And what of your request then, I don't see how Miss Granger could help you with that." McGonagall asked.

"Excuse me, but I am still in the room. Can someone tell me what you are talking about?" Hermione commanded.

Severus turned to Hermione. "Miss Granger, seeing as you are one of the only people that are going to know about his condition, I've requested you to help me find a cure. According to past experiences you have a knack for finding out things you shouldn't know about. The main reason I've asked you here is because you should take your NEWTS so you could spend more time researching and I need the Headmistress's approval. You're more than ready for them."

Hermione stood there stunned. For one, Severus complemented her, sort of. Second of all, he believed that she could pass the NEWTS with ease. After she got a hold of herself she said "Why me? Why not work by yourself like you normally did with everything else?"

"We need this problem solved as quickly as possible, and I still need to teach so I won't have as much time as I would need to discover the solution before it's too late to solve it." Severus told her in a neutral voice.

"But why me?" Hermione asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer. If he said that she was the only person available then that would mean that he doesn't think of her as an equal, or even close.

"I never thought you were a person to fish for compliments Miss Granger."

"I'm not." Hermionie said confused.

"You are intelligent and stubborn enough to discover a solution quicker than almost anyone else. You solved my riddle with ease, you were the first person to realize that the basilisk was the monster of Slytherin, you were the only person to figure out that Lupin was a werewolf, you are the reason Potter was able to do so well during the Triwizard tournament, you tricked Umbridge to go into the forest, and you made sure Potter survived long enough so he could defeat the darkest wizard of your time." Severus said seeing that Hermione really didnt know why he chose her, leaving Hermione stunned.

"Now that I satisfied your ego, are you willing to take the NEWTS in a week?" Severus continued, in a much colder voice.

"S-sure. What do I tell everyone though?" Hermione stuttered.

"That's not my problem, now leave." Severus told her. Hermione rushed out of the room quickly, wondering what caused the change of mood. He was glaring at her, but just as she turned around a flash of warmth touched his eyes.

_An hour later. Hermione had just told Draco what happened. Harry and Pansy are somewhere else. Hermione and Draco are in the Slytherin common room. The Slytherins in the room automatically accepted Hermione being there, since Draco was the one that brought her there. _

"I don't know what his problem was. He was treating me just fine until the end when he kicked me out. I don't think I did something to annoy him." Hermione told Draco, causing him to laugh.

"What?" Hermione snapped.

After Draco got of a hold of himself he said, "Man he has it bad, he was just embarassed Hermione. I wouldn't stress about it much."

"Pardon?" Hermione blurted without thinking, she could have sworn that he said that Severus was embarassed, if that wasn't so unlikely.

"You heard me. He just complemented you, and once he realized that he was reveling too much of his feelings, especially in front of the Headmistress, his automatic reaction was to be a bastard. Once he realizes that you feel the same way he might be able to control that better." Draco said smirking. "I think that you are the only person that can distract my Godfather enough to reveal something about himself. I hope you can get past the wall he put around himself Hermione, he's been hiding behind it for far too long."

"Well since I'm going to take my NEWTS in a week I should be studying." Blushing, Hermione says, trying to change the subject. Pretty soon Draco was going to tell her to confess again, and she wasn't ready for that.

"But are you going too? I think you should spend this time researching Hermione, you are ready for the NEWTS, Weasly might not be cured in time." Draco says seriously. "I don't like the git but I know he is your friend. If I was you I would be looking for a solution."

"I need a better library than the one available to me for me to find one. I've read almost everything in there about dark objects while I was looking for information about Horcuxes. I felt stupid when I didn't realize what was wrong with Ron before Harry did. I looked at the same book he did."

"Well Severus has a good library, maybe he'll let you use it."

"I wish, but he doesn't let anyone read his books, the only person other than Severus to be in there was Dumbledore, and that's only because he was the headmaster." Hermione said, with a slight dreamy look in her eyes. She heard that Severus had a room filled with books, with full bookshelves that completely cover the walls.

"He did ask for your help, he probably realizes that there is nothing in the school's library and would be willing to let you read his books." Draco said as an owl flies towards him and dropped a letter in front of him. Opening it he tells Hermione "My father is here, I'll tell you what he says when I get back."

"You better, I'm going to find Harry." Hermione said, following him out of the room. The Slytherins might not of said anything about her when she was with Draco but she wasn't going to be there if she didn't have too. The only reason she went there with Draco was because that was the only place where the Gryffindors wouldn't look for her. Even with Muffliato she was worried that the others could hear what she was saying.

"No need, he's right there." Draco tells her. Harry was right outside of the Slytherin Commons door with Pansy. Hermione walks over to him and Draco leaves. Hermione Pansy and Harry all leave and went down an empty hallway. Once they are positive that no one is around Hermione casts Muffliato.

"What did Professor Snape want?" Harry asks her.

"I'm going to be taking my NEWTS next week so I can find a solution to what's wrong with Ron." Hermione tells him. "Professor Snape asked me to help him."

"I told you he liked you Hermione, if that didn't prove it I don't know what will. He never asks for help, even if he needs it." Pansy says.

"Wait, he likes you back Hermione? Why didn't you tell me?" Harry says the second Pansy stopped talking.

Glaring at Pansy Hermione says, "I don't know if he likes me back, Pansy and Draco just believe that he does."

"Well, it doesn't matter I guess. Right now is not a good time or you to pursue a relationship with him, at least not with Ron still like this. You don't have the time to convince him that you are serious about him while trying to get Ron better in time." Harry says, after thinking for a few minutes.

"I think differently Harry, I think that Hermione has been given a wonderful opportunity to prove that she is interested. She is going to be working with him for a while, and he obviously wants to be around her if he arranged for her to take her NEWTS so she can help him, which means spending time with him. I don't think that she should spend the whole time convincing him of course, just when they are taking a break." Pansy says, having eyes only for Harry. She had been falling for him hard. She secretly had a crush on him during sixth year. Now that she was positive Harry returned her feelings she had been falling for him harder.

"I am still here, you don't have to talk about me like I'm not." Hermione said annoyed, she realized that Pansy and Harry were into each other, but that didn't mean she liked being ignored.

"Sorry, so when are you going to confess? Draco is planning on asking Ginny out tomorrow." Pansy said.

"I never agreed that I would confess when Draco asks out Ginny." Hermione says quickly. She realized that Pansy was just trying to distract her from worrying about Ron when there was nothing she could do about it, but she would rather be distracted with something else. She was nervous about what Severus would say if she confessed.

"You were going too" Pansy said, and noticing that it was almost curfew she told Harry and Hermione good bye and left. Harry and Hermione headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Hermione, if you do get in a relationship with Professor Snape I will support you. He is still not my favorite person but I know that he is not the bastard I thought he was." Harry tells her as the approached the tower.

"Thanks Harry, I hope that this chaos will end. I thought it was over when Voldemort died."

"Me too, Good Night."

"Good Night."

A/N: Sorry for not updating! I had midterms last week and couldn't find the time to update this story. I know I cut this chapter short but the next one will be better.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

A/N: Thanks asianwitch, Icelynne, Indigo flower 94 and for the reviews.

As she walked into the girls commons everybody looked up, suddenly quiet. Ginny was the only person there not glaring at her. Quickly Lavender puts a note on one of the school's owls and sent it out the window.

"You're not allowed to send owls in the commons Lavender." Hermione says.

"Really? What are you going to do about it? You no longer have any power here Granger; I'm now the Gryffindor Princess. None of us consider you a Gryffindor anymore after what you did to Ron. Gryffindors don't side with the enemy" Lavender tells her.

Upon hearing this Ginny snorts. "Lavender, you are by no means a princess. I still think that Hermione is a Gryffindor, though I am wondering if you were sorted into the wrong house. Weren't you one of the people hexing the Slytherins for eating lunch earlier?"

"We were just defending Harry from a love spell. There is no way Harry would be interested in a Slytherin." Lavender tells her. "The other Slytherins were probably in on it."

"Harry is not under a love spell, he is interested in Pansy. You two should get over your old biases towards the Slytherins. It makes the Gryffindor house look bad when we hex students for no reason. There are very few Slytherins in the school, and the ones that are here were the ones that stood with us during the final battle, which was a lot more dangerous for them because they had parents who were deatheaters." Hermione snaps at them, her eyes blazing. She was sick of hearing people only remembering the bad about people. "I am going to bed. I don't give a shit about what you think of me, nothing you say or do is going to hurt me. Goodnight Gin."

"Goodnight Hermione." Ginny says, and just as Hermione left she could of sworn she heard Lavender mutter "we'll see about that tomorrow."

The next morning at the great hall everyone was looking at The Daily Prophet. Wondering what was going on she picked up the closest newspaper. The head line said **Great Scandal at Hogwarts. Deatheater Severus Snape is Sleeping with Hermione Granger Gryffindor Slut. **Below was a picture of her looking at Severus with a love sick look and Severus looking at her warmly. It wasn't anything that showed that Hermione was sleeping with Severus, but since Severus never looked at anyone warmly before everyone believed that it was true.

Hermione became furious, now the Headmistress had to find out if this was true, and even when she finds out that it was false the damage would be done. More than likely Severus would be fired from his job, and she would have a hard time getting one. Once an idea got placed in people's heads it was next to impossible to convince them it wasn't true. It didn't matter that Student/Teacher relationships were allowed. The ministry was still looking for excuses to lock Severus up. She looked at the head table and saw that Severus wasn't sitting there; he was probably in his rooms looking at his library. She glanced at the headmistress and she looked pissed.

Looking at the Gryffindor table Hermione saw that Lavender was laughing at the newspaper, but once she noticed Hermione she became quiet, along with everyone else in the room.

"Look everybody, it's the Gryffindor slut. I guess she should have stuck with us Gryffindors, this is what happens to traitors." Lavender said, laughing a little. She still held a grudge that Ron chose Hermione over her, and wanted to ruin Hermione's life. Hermione was positive it was Lavender that gave the false story to the Prophet. "The good thing is though it means we are losing that bastard for a teacher." Everyone at the Gryffindor table cheered, Ginny and Neville wasn't there yet.

Hermione had enough. She knew that Severus didn't deserve all the crap he received from everyone and knew she had to put a stop to it, but not before she did a spell.

"Penitus Decor Foris." Hermione says in a cold voice, pointing her wand at Lavender. Almost instantly her gorgeous locks turned to an ugly shade of brown and looked like hay, and her face broke out in zits and moles. Then her figure changed from skinny to fat. In all she became hideous. Lavender screamed and ran out of the room. Glaring at the other Gryffindors she walked up to Draco and Pansy, who were sitting at the Slytherin table.

"Can I sit here? I'd rather not sit with garbage." Hermione asked them.

"Welcome to the dark side" Draco smirked, scooting over to make room. Then he muttered to her "Weasly will be gone in three days. My father believed me and has made the arrangements."

Hermione gave him a small nod. Harry walked into the room and without hesitation walked over to Hermione Draco and Pansy and sat down next to Pansy. "Hello, I'm guessing you've seen the newspaper?" he asked, ignoring the fact that everybody was looking at them. It's not actually a school rule that the students have to sit with their house, but nobody sat with another house. The Slytherins had a stunned look on their faces. It was obvious that they had no idea what was going on, with the newspaper or with Harry and Hermione.

"Yeah, I've seen that trash. It made me out as a Scarlet Lady again. If Se-Professor Snape gets fired because of this I'm going back to the Ministry again." Hermione said angrily, catching her slip up in time.

"I wonder if he's read the Prophet yet." Harry asked, just as Severus bursts through the door, nearly breaking it.

"Looks like it." Harry said. He glares at the Headmistress and looked to the Gryfindor table. When he glanced at the Slytherin table he notices Hermione, and once he gets over the shock that she is sitting at the Slytherin table he glares at her, then walks out of the room. The headmistress stood up and left.

"I think I should go, thanks for the update Draco." Hermione said standing up. She left the room in a hurry. She quickly found Severus and McGonagall in front of the Headmistress's office. She was ushered inside and the door slammed.

"What is the meaning of this?" Severus yelled, holding up a newspaper.

"That is what I would like to know." Headmistress McGonagall said.

"I believe that Lavender Brown sent a story to the newspaper last night. She sent off an owl in quite a hurry yesterday."

"Why would Miss Brown do that? This sounds more like the work of Slytherin." McGonagall asked coldly.

Severus became more enraged but Hermione beat him to it. "Well _Headmistress_, in case you haven't noticed the war is over. I am sick of people treating the people who used to be on the wrong side like dirt. They risked their lives to join us, with no chance for a reward. And for your information the Slytherins that you are falsely accusing were as shocked as I was about the newspaper, while your precious Gryffindors didn't look a bit shocked. When you act like the Slytherins haven't changed it's no wonder that your students act the same way. You are being unfair to the Slytherins, and you are being really unfair to Severus. As to why I think its Lavender, ever since Ron dumped her she has been telling everybody that I'm the Gryffindor slut, which is what the Newspaper called me." Hermione snapped, not realizing she called Severus by his first name.

The headmistress looked shocked. She never thought that she would talk so rudely to her. "Like I said yesterday I am ashamed to call myself a Gryffindor. I hope you don't believe what the newspaper said was true, it's garbage."

"No, I don't, but protocol demands that I put both of you under Veritaserum." She said, starting to see things from Hermione's point of view. She had been noticing her house acting a lot worse and has been treating the Slytherins like dirt. She realized that she has done nothing about it, just because she thought that they deserved it for how they acted before the war. But Hermione just made her realize that it was unfair, not only to the students but to Severus also.

"Later, Draco told me this morning that his father can get Ron out of the school in three days; I hope you won't make it difficult for them. He did attack Pomfry." Hermione told her, trying to calm herself down. She noticed that for the first time since the war ended the Headmistress didn't have the cold look in her eyes. She finally got through to her.

"I won't." McGonagall said. Severus who was shocked into silence by what Hermione said snapped out of it.

"Miss Granger, regardless if Weasly is leaving or not it doesn't solve the problem. Do you know anyone willing to look over him because if someone doesn't he will escape. And when that happens who knows what's going to happen. And neither does it solve the problem that the better part of the wizarding world either thinks that I'm a pedophile or you're a slut. That alone will make it difficult to find a private place so we can solve this problem." Severus said in a serious voice, but contained none of the usual sarcasm.

Hermione thought for a few minutes, and thought of a solution that Severus wouldn't like. "I'm not sure about who could watch Ron, but we could use the rumors to our advantage." Hermione said.

"What do you mean Miss Granger?"

"Hermione."

"Pardon?"

"My name is Hermione. We are going to be working together and I would prefer if you called me by my first name."

"Fine, what do you mean _Hermione_?" Severus asked, some of the sarcasm back in his voice.

"Well Professor,"

"If I have to call you by your name you should call me by mine. You had no trouble earlier." Severus said interrupting her.

Rolling her eyes Hermione continued. "Well Severus, like I said we are going to be working together, but we can't let anyone know what we are working on. I really don't care what garbage the Prophet dishes up"

"Then why did I see Miss Brown run out of the room screaming with a new look?" Severus said interrupting her again.

"She was trying to get you fired; I thought you wanted to hear what I have to say."

"I do."

"Then stop interrupting, as I was saying I don't care what the Prophet says, but if everyone thinks we are in a relationship they won't realize what we really are doing. We will still deny it of course, so we don't have to act like we are in a relationship when anyone is around. I know the last thing you would want is to have to pretend to be interested in an annoying Know-it-All like me." Hermione said, searing she heard Severus mutter that would not be the worst thing that could happen.

"And since I'm going to take my NEWTs soon they will think that I did it so I could still be with you, and won't attack me with an endless stream of questions. I will still be treated awful by the people who aren't my friends but they won't go into panic mode from the thought of a new Dark Lord."

"The idea has merit, I'll give you that, but I don't see why you would want to go through all that trouble. I could just give everyone detention until they give up that idea." Severus said.

"That wouldn't work Severus; it would just be easier to let them think what they want. I don't think you are going to be fired and since I will be done with school next week the Ministry can't force the Headmistress to fire you."

"Well we could…" Severus continued.

McGonagall has been watching the exchange between Hermione and Severus with interest. They had completely forgotten her existence and Severus was looking at Hermione with a look she has never saw on him before. She knew that they were not in a relationship, but she was almost positive they wanted to be. An hour earlier she would have fired Severus on the spot, now she could see past her previous beliefs and see why they would be good for each other. She wasn't going to prevent it from happening. Regardless of the situation she had never seen Severus more relax than when he was talking with Hermione, even though Hermione wouldn't realize that.

"I know you two are trying to find a solution but that can be dealt with later. What are we going to do with Mr. Weasly? And what are we going to tell his poor parents? They already lost one child during the war, this is almost like losing another." McGonagall asked, interrupting them.

"The truth, if we first get them to swear an oath of silence. Arthur does work with the Ministry. As to who could look after him we have two days to find someone." Hermione said, blushing a little. She forgot about the Headmistress.

Severus was about to say something when they heard a knock at the door.

A/N: Again sorry for the cliffhanger. Penitus Decor Foris means show inner beauty in Latin. I'm probably going to have Hermione hit with that spell in a later chapter, and maybe Severus. I know Hermione was being a bit harsh, but they had been treating the man she was in love with like dirt and trying to get rid of him. I'm glad McGonagall redeemed herself a little. This story seems to be writing itself. I'll try to update soon, to make up for taking so long to update my last chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Anything! It is all J.K. Rowling's work!

A/N: thanks asianwitch and Icelynne for the reviews

McGonagall knew it was someone from the ministry, so she put Severus and Hermione in the back room and closed the door. She then opened the door. It was Kingsley. "Why are you here?" She asked.

"I am sorry to be the one to tell you this but the ministry is unfortunately making you"

McGonagall interrupted him. "If this is about Severus I am not firing him. I just questioned Severus and Miss Granger and they have nothing going on between them. You can tell the Minister that."

"No, this is not about Severus."

"Oh" McGonagall said, turning a little pink.

"Apparently Draco complained to his father about how Ron hexed him and his father has convinced the Ministry that he should be expelled." Seeing the shocked look on her face he quickly said "Don't worry, I convinced them that it was a little too extreme and instead he is suspended for a month. That is the smallest amount of time I could get."

"Have you informed his family yet?"

"Not yet, I'll leave that up to you."

"Well thank you for trying to help."

"No problem, I just wish I could have done more." Kingsley said, "The ministry has given him 24 hours to leave willingly before he is forced to. And Lucius said he was going to check up on him from time to time, to see if he is following the rules" He finished, looking furious by the end of it. He couldn't stand that the Malfoy's got their way just because they were rich.

"I better get going; thanks for letting me take up your time." Kingsley said in a neutral voice. Regardless what he thinks of the ministry he still had to do his job.

McGonagall nodded and he left. She was about to let Hermione and Severus out when someone knocked on the door again. She was surprised to see that it was Neville.

"Mr. Longbottom, what is it?" she asked.

"Don't fire Professor Snape!" Neville exclaimed.

"Pardon me?"

"You heard me. I know that you still haven't forgiven him for what he was forced to do to the Headmaster but that is no reason to fire him before you hear what he has to say."

"Mr. Longbottom I"

"No, listen to me. Professor Snape is a good person; he would never force himself on a student, or anybody for that matter. He might have terrified me during potions but he is a good teacher. There were more accidents in potions when Professor Slughorn was teacher for one year than the previous five years combined with Professor Snape, and that is including all of the blunders I did."

"Mr. Longbottom!"

"Let me finish! Last year he also risked his life to keep us students safe. He assigned detention with Hagrid whenever he could get away with it, knowing that would keep us from getting beaten from the Carrows. He doesn't deserve to automatically be assumed guilty."

"Enough Mr. Longbottom, I was not planning on firing Professor Snape. Now Mr. Longbottom, why were you willing to risk being expelled by doing this?"

Neville, who was beet red said, "I know that he is a good person, I can't stand the fact that everybody seemed to turn against him since the war was over, well everyone except the Slytherins and Hermione. I think that Hermione never gave up on him actually. She gave me Ginny Harry and Ron a good talking to about Professor Snape. She was the one who made me realize what he was doing by sending us to detention with Hagrid, and the risk it was to do it. You remember last Friday when Hermione gave everyone that lecture in the great hall? Well I for one agreed with her. Everyone did treat the Slytherins like they were supposed to be evil, even if they wanted to join our side we probably wouldn't have let them. I don't want to continue doing that. Professor Snape proved again and again he was on our side during the war, and he did it knowing he wouldn't get any glory. I am not going to sit by and watch him get attacked when I could help it somehow.

"I never knew you thought this strongly Mr. Longbottom." McGonagall said, looking at him proudly. It took a lot of courage to speak to elders like that.

"Yeah, well I better go tell Ginny that he is not going to be fired, or she will be in here to do the exact same thing." He said, "And please don't tell Professor Snape I did this, he is going to be angry that I interfered with his business."

"I won't tell him."

"Thank you!" he said, quickly leaving out of embarrassment. McGonagall waited a few minutes before letting Severus and Hermione out, she wanted to make sure no one else was coming.

When she opened the door Severus and Hermione weren't there. "Severus? Miss Granger? Are you here?" she called.

Suddenly one of the bookshelves in the room opened, revealing a large but empty room, the very air brimming with magic, and Hermione and Severus right in the middle of it, both looking at the wall with interest. "What is this?" McGonagall asked.

Startled Hermione turned around. "The second you put us in this room the bookshelf opened. As you can feel there is a lot of magic in this room. We were trying to translate the writing on the wall to figure out why." She said, looking annoyed. She couldn't even recognize the language; let alone what any of it meant.

"What writing?" McGonagall asked, only seeing a blank wall.

"The writing with the glowing silver letters, what else could we be talking about." Severus snapped, he was frustrated with the writing because he could have sworn he had seen it before, but he couldn't figure out where. He knew though that he never knew what it meant though, adding to his frustration.

"I don't see anything." McGonagall said, confused.

Seeing that she was being serious Severus accioed a piece of paper and started writing on it, looking intently at the wall while he did. He handed the paper to McGonagall. The writing on it said

Þegar tvær sálir verða eitt,

galdur þeirra mun aukast tífalt,

og myrkur mun afturkalla.

Ástin tveggja sálna sem eru einum

vilja koma aftur ljósið í myrkri sjálfur.

"This is what we see, it looks familiar but I can't place where I've seen it. I wonder why you can't see it." Severus said.

"Maybe because you've seen it before?" McGonagall asked.

"That can't be, this doesn't look familiar at all to me. I know I never seen this before in my life." Hermione said. Then, suddenly remembering why she was placed in the backroom in the first place asked, "What did the ministry want?"

"Mr. Weasley is suspended for a month; he has until tomorrow to leave." She said.

"That was quick; Draco only talked to his father last night. I wonder what he said that made him do this so fast."

"I don't know, we need to contact the Weasley family. Severus, we need to leave and come back to it later. It's more important that we figure out who is going to keep an eye on Mr. Weasley then figuring out the mystery of this room. You can look at it later." McGonagall told him, knowing that if he didn't leave now he would start obsessing about it.

"Fine." He said, looking like a child who got denied sweets.

Hermione thought it was cute, then realized who she was thinking about and pushed that thought out. Hoping her face wasn't red she said "I better be allowed to look at this too, I want to know why you can't see it but me and Severus can."

"You can too then, now how do we inform the Weasley family about what is wrong with their son while still getting an oath of silence."

After thinking for a few minutes Hermione said, "Call an Order meeting. There is an automatic oath of silence put on the order during a meeting. We need people we can trust not to tell anyone to look over Ron and the order will happily volunteer."

"But an order meeting takes time to get organized." McGonagall said. "It is normally called days in advance so everyone can find an inconspicuous way to take time off."

"Just call an emergency meeting, just use the same code Albus did when he called us the first time. Nobody will tell anyone else about it and everybody will be expecting bad news. It's important." Severus said, he wasn't too happy about more people than necessary knowing about this but he knew Hermione was right, they needed people they could trust to keep an eye on Weasley.

"Miss Granger,"

"I'm sorry headmistress, but could you call me Hermione also? I feel like a child whenever someone calls me Miss Granger."

"Of course, you are graduating soon, Hermione, I know that Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, and Lucius know about Mr. Weasley's condition, does anyone else?"

"Pansy, she saw Ron's eyes flash red and demanded an answer. She knew what Voldemort's eyes looked like and Ron had them. That's the same reason why we told Draco. They won't tell anyone though, they don't want another to be trusted even less, and if people found out that Voldemort is influencing Ron, they would automatically look to the people who were on Voldemort's side during the war."

"Hermione, this is normally not allowed but I'm afraid you and your friends will have to join this meeting. Once you do you will automatically be under an oath of silence. The less people know about this the better." McGonagall told Hermione. "Now go find them and tell them to go to my office tonight at 11 tonight, the meeting will be at 11:30."

Hermione, who a year before would of questioned the orders instantly, but she had grew up in the past year to know that asking a constant stream of questions wasn't the best way to find answers. It was better to observe the facts given then ask for verification once an answer was found. She left without a word to find Draco Harry and Pansy.

A/N: I know this is one of my shorter chapters, but I have to go soon. The writing on the wall is not random nonsense, it is going to be important in later chapters. So, what does everybody think of my story so far?


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